Ida+Henry

On January 12, 1900, Mrs. Ida Henry, age 26, died at the Chicago home she shared with Dr. Paulina Bechtel, from complications of an abortion Bechtel had performed on her there that day.

 Bechtel, who said that she'd been practicing medicine for 18 years, was held by the Coroner's Jury.

An undertaker had embalmed Ida's body prior to a post-mortem examination. He was censured for this compromising of evidence that would be found in the body, but was not charged with any crime.

Ida's abortion was typical of pre-legal abortions in that it was [|performed by a physician].

Bechtel had been tried in the October, 1895 abortion death of Mrs. Kittie Bassett. Bechtel was also implicated in the death of [|Barbara Shelgren] shortly after Ida's death, but was identified as a midwife in that case. According to Leslie Reagan, author of When Abortion Was a Crime, it was common for female physicians to be misidentified as midwives, particularly if they practiced obstetrics. Bechtel went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see [|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]
 * "Accused of Malpractice," Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 13, 1900

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